Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith has cancelled his vacation leave, which was supposed to start today, in order to focus on some key matters, including the ongoing Drugs Sou Sou probe.
Speaking during yesterday’s T&T Police Service weekly media briefing, Griffith said he had cancelled his flights to Barbados, London and Belfast earlier in the day.
Admitting that working around the clock had taken a toll on his health, Griffith said that still would not prevent him from serving his the country.
“The way I was brought up and trained is that my country comes first. And for the last two years, every single week there has been some reason (not to go on vacation) and this here is obviously a reason,” Griffith said.
Giving reasons for his decision to rescind the vacation, he said they got intelligence that in his absence there would be a deliberate plan by persons to try to undermine the TTPS.
“I am fighting a battle here with many Trojan horses in my own camp and that is a fact. Now is not the time to throw the whole TTPS under the bus but to try to discard and discredit the few, not the whole TTPS,” he said.
“If we have 8,000 police officers and it’s just 100 involved in this, I beg you, please understand, you still have several thousand officers out there working hard, from local government elections to Carnival and Christmas to COVID-19, plan to loot and burn the city, general election. They are out there doing as much as they can, many of them even being affected by COVID. Let us not discredit the police officers because of this situation.”
When asked how his wife Nicole and son Gary Griffith III, who are both in Ireland, had taken the news, Griffith said he would not comment on his family’s feelings.
Griffith was due to leave T&T for 21 days to spend time with his son, who plays professional football in Ireland.
Griffith also took the opportunity to thank Deputy Commissioner of Police Jayson Forde for his service to the TTPS. Forde will proceed on retirement from today (See page 9).
“Today (Thursday) is the last day for DCP Forde in the TTPS. He has served the TTPS for several years and I wish to send all my best to DCP Forde. He has proven to be an exceptional police officer, moving above and beyond the call of duty and we’ll hopefully see him soon in another venture.” (RDR)